Police fail to investigate one third of crimes

Police failed to investigate more than 1.5 million reported crimes last year, The
Sunday Telegraph can disclose.

By Ben Leach and John Fagan

10:00PM GMT 21 Nov 2009

The offences included sex attacks, robberies, fraud, violent crimes and drug offences, as well as large numbers of burglaries and thefts.

Around one-third of all offences reported to police, usually by the victim, were dismissed as unsolvable within hours, in a process sometimes called "screening out".

The crimes were counted in official figures and the victims were issued with reference numbers for insurance purposes, but no effort was made to catch the culprits.

Among 18 English, Welsh and Scottish forces which operate official screening-out policies, 697,000 offences went uninvestigated during the 2008/9 financial year, out of a total of 2.2 million reported crimes – a rate of 32 per cent.

A further 15 forces said they did not formally "screen out" crimes, although some nevertheless admitted that offences could be earmarked for "no further action", or a similar label, at an early stage.

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The findings suggest that across the UK last year, out of 5.2 million crimes reported to police around 1.7 million went uninvestigated.

The revelation comes as Alan Johnson, the home secretary, said on Friday that the failure by the police to visit all victims of minor crimes is wrong. He said that his "gut instinct" was that every victim should be seen and spoken to by an officer. "I think the principle and the sentiment is absolutely right," Mr Johnson said.

Critics accused the police of adopting the wrong priorities. Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, said: "This is what happens when ministers create a bureaucratic system that leave police officers sitting in stations filling out forms and not investigating crime."

The findings also come after one of the country's most senior officers accused forces which refuse to visit every crime victim of "arrogance".

Bernard Hogan-Howe, the former head of Merseyside Police and now an inspector for Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, said that instead of selecting which offences are worthy of attendance, officers should offer to visit every victim no matter how minor the crime.

Two years ago Merseyside Police admitted to screening out 31 per cent of crimes, but the force no longer uses the term or issues figures.

Police chiefs defend the screening-out system as a way to target resources on the most serious and solvable crimes. They insist that all crimes are "investigated" to some degree, even if this amounts to no more than a telephone conversation with the member of police staff who takes down the initial details.

Serious crimes such as murder, wounding or rape are always investigated, as are crimes where there is a named suspect or obvious forensic evidence. If new evidence comes to light then a crime that had been screened out can be reclassified and investigated further.

Among the 18 forces which provided figures under the Freedom of Information Act, the highest rate of screening out was by the Metropolitan Police, with 48 per cent of reported offences dealt with in this way in 2008/9, a drop of three per cent on the previous year's rate.

Out of 93,558 burglaries in the capital, 53,711 were not investigated. Out of 313,351 theft and handling offences, 238,836 offences were not investigated.

The overall screening-out rate was 46 per cent in Dorset, 43 per cent in Cambridgeshire and 42 per cent in Cleveland.

Yet Essex Police screened out only three per cent of reported crimes, while the figure in Leicestershire and the Grampian region was only nine per cent.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said it was the Met's policy to ensure that a "thorough primary investigation" is conducted into all crimes.

"If this has not resulted in an arrest then a decision will be made on whether a further secondary investigation should take place", he added.

"The decision on whether a crime is detectable will be made taking into account the evidence and leads available to officers such as forensics, the identification of suspects and stolen property, CCTV, intelligence and witness reports."

In parts of the country, an average of around 75 per cent of theft and handling offences are screened out. That figure is around 70 per cent for criminal damage, 55 per cent for burglary, 44 per cent for fraud and forgery, 20 per cent for robbery, 15 per cent for violent offences, two per cent for sexual attacks, and less than one per cent for drug offences.

Douglas Paxton, the assistant chief constable of Staffordshire Police and spokesman on crime recording for the Association of Chief Police Officers, said that the words 'screening out' carried negative connotations, but did not mean that crimes were not being investigated.

"Each force has a process of professionally assessing the victim's needs and of the investigative opportunities of each reported crime.

"No crime goes uninvestigated. Screening out simply refers to the point at which an investigation is concluded.

"If we weren't getting this right we would see that with low levels of victim satisfaction."